


When Tony Lost Civil War

by Jane271



Series: MCU stories [One shots] [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: #teamironman, BAMF Tony Stark, Not Steve Rogers Friendly, Tony's Done, not team Cap friendly, not wanda maximoff friendly, team cap gets what they had coming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:07:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22632373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jane271/pseuds/Jane271
Summary: This is a fic that explores the possible outcome if #teamironman had lost Civil War. This is in no way actually an accurate description of how the law works, but this universe has aliens, sorcerers and all that stuff. It isn't meant to be realistic in any way.Honestly, press f for team cap in this fic.Don't like, don't read.
Series: MCU stories [One shots] [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1678051
Comments: 50
Kudos: 1721
Collections: Cold Consequences, Post-Civil War Media Fallout (Team Iron Man), Team Iron Man, Tony Stark Defense Squad I, Tony Stark deserves more, Tony Stark is more than a doormat, Works worth reading a million times over, superhero tingz





	When Tony Lost Civil War

**Author's Note:**

> Please don't sent any hate, this is a work of fiction. Don't like, don't read.

Steve sighed as he left the brunet alone once more in his small room. Tony still wasn’t talking to him.

If Tony would just talk to him, they could figure things out. Steve may even be able to get him released to the compound so Tony could work on their equipment or even man the coms.

Instead the younger man decided to keep shutting Steve out and undermined his own chances at regaining his freedom. Sure, Tony would not be allowed to leave the compound, but at least he’d be _home_.

Steve sighed as he entered the ground room of the compound. The only one who looked hopeful was Sam. It crushed Steve to shake his head and, once again, stamp that hope down. Steve had been doing this song and dance for a good three months now. Three months since, what the media called, ‘Civil War’.

Three months since Tony had betrayed them all. Three months since Tony was imprisoned for his crimes.

“Nothing again?” Sam asks, even though they both already know the answer.

“No.” Steve replies. He tries to keep the rejection out of his voice but fails.

Clint shakes his head, “Man, maybe you should just give up. While it would be nice to have Stark fixing our equipment for us and such, do we really want that backstabbing son of a bitch back?”

Steve keeps a second sigh in. Every other day they have the same conversation, and every time Steve still goes back, hoping that Tony will see reason. Only to be ignored by the genius.

The doctors had assured Steve multiple times that despite the damage to the man’s throat he could speak if he wanted to.

Tony had not said a single word after waking from his coma and being informed that Rhodes had not made it. He kept silent through his arrest, transfer to the SHIELD prison, everything.

Steve went to see him three times per week, only to be met with silence.

It only proved to Steve that there was just something broken in the Ironman pilot. Something that perhaps can’t be fixed, no matter how hard he had tried in the past and was still trying to fix in the present.

Steve closed the door to his room with a little difficulty. After all that had happened, Tony’s AI Friday seemed to have just vanished. It had put great pressure on the team. Suddenly the entire compound was no longer operational. No one could open doors, no mission alerts came through, they couldn’t even make a cup of coffee.

It was then that Steve had once again cursed Tony and his dependency on electronics. Without the program the compound just wasn’t the same.

Steve sat heavily on his bed and ran his fingers through his hair.

The last few months had been tough. With the media storm Civil War had caused, with the way Tony was behaving about it all, with Bucky.

The assistance of a heavy hitter like Ironman was also missed on the field. Steve just whished that Tony stopped the pettiness and made them a suit, as he’d requested of the brunet. It was only fair after all the grief he’d caused the team. Steve would have even heard his opinions about the line-up of pilots SHIELD had provided. Tony just needed to stop and listen to him. He was denying the world of the protection it could provide, and that was unacceptable.

Steve understood that perhaps Tony had lost some of his confidence with materials after loosing his dominant arm and an eye, but even if he could no longer work at the rate he did before, Steve wouldn’t embarrass him about it and make sure the others wouldn’t either. Steve had reassured him of the fact almost every time he saw the other man, but Tony favored staring at the wall instead of getting to work.

He heaved another deep sigh and laid back on his back. Just breathe, he told himself. Just breathe. Tony will give in soon enough. The younger man had proven that he had impressive stubbornness issues, but even the toughest men break with time.

And Tony wasn’t that though.

It was only a matter of time.

``````````````````````````````````````````

It was only a matter of time, Tony told himself.

He listened to the retreating footsteps of Captain Jackass and knew exactly when he turned the corner. 49 footsteps. Corner. Buzzing of the gate. And then he could no longer hear him.

Tony wanted to sigh in relief, but didn’t allow himself to.

In the three months he’d spent in the small room, Rogers had come to visit like clockwork.

Tony wanted nothing more that to splatter the man’s brain all over the wall. It would feel so satisfying, like stopping the Mandarin had, like blowing up the ten rings…

But he needed to bide his time. After Siberia his body had been practically broken beyond repair. He lost his arm, his eye. Needed countless surgeries to fix his chest. Needed even more surgeries for other things that he probably forgot about.

To sum it up, he was a mess. Healing was a slow process, but he healed as best as his faulty human body allowed. Finally, after three _very_ long months, he was fairly confident that escaping was possible.

His baby girl had thankfully been taking good care of him. Friday had sent ex-agents of SHIELD, the ones that he’d saved during the data dump, back to the newly formed SHIELD to help him. She’d let him know what labs of his were found, and thus she’d had to blow up. What suits had survived and which had not.

The getting out part would not be difficult, it was the fact that he would have no doctors for a while because he had to lay low. Honestly, had SHIELD forgotten he _made_ the force-field walls? Trying to use his own tech to keep him from escaping? That was cute. And either arrogant or incredibly stupid.

Even so, being confined to a small jail cell was not how he wanted to spent the rest of his life. When he got out, there would be a reckoning the Avengers would never forget. Tony didn’t plan to kill Rogers, however tempting it would be. What he wanted more, was to kill the man’s legacy.

Exactly three hours after Rogers left the SHIELD base, Tony called his suits to him and made his move.

````````````````````````````````````

When Steve got the call from Fury that Tony had escaped, he didn’t know what to think. He arrived on the scene long after Tony was gone.

He quickly spotted Hill and demanded to know what happened.

“Turns out Stark had inside and outside help. Half the agents on service were in his pocket. And as it turns out Stark had more suits as we thought.” Hill looks at two medics rushing to the scene for a second, “Also turns out he’s still not the meek lamb he has been pretending to be the last few months. Even with only one arm, we were no match.”

Steve looks at the destruction. Tony did all this on his own? “How many dead?” He asks, dreading the number. It wouldn’t reflect good on Tony if the number were too high. Steve might not be able to get him to come back to the compound if it were too bad. It was so Tony, to shoot himself in the foot like that.

Hill looks conflicted for s split second, “Well, that’s the odd part. We’ve got plenty of injured, but no casualties. Most guards were either taken out with projectile tasers, or they were simply locked in a certain area. The repulser blasts were kept far away from any staff and used only for destruction of walls and such.”

Steve blinks dumbly and then takes a look at the utter destruction around him. Walls were punched in, bullet holes littered the remaining walls, ceilings had collapsed and there was still the odd fire burning here and there.

“Not a single one?” He asks stunned. “That can’t be.”

“And yet. No matter how bad his physical condition has been, nor how quiet he’s been, it’s still Stark.” With that Hill is off again, yelling orders into her comm. Steve doesn’t want to keep Hill away from her duties any longer and goes to look for Fury. He blocks out Clint and Wanda’s promises to end Tony once and for all.

He’d never let them touch the man he loved anyways.

````````````````````````````````

After flying for several hour, Tony finally landed and breathed in the fresh air of the wilderness around him. The stars are beautiful so far away from any lighting.

The suits got sent down to the underground bunker where he joined them.

And just like Rogers had predicted, Tony got to work as soon as he entered his lab. For the first time since Rhodey’s death, Tony manages a watery smile at the enthusiastic greeting his four children have for him. He sits on DUM_E’s base as he starts putting the blueprints for his new projects into a tangible form.

Home sweet home.

``````````````````````````````````

“We’ve found nothing. Again.” Natasha informs him.

“I know.”

Clint jumps up. “Where is the damned coward hiding?! There’s no way he can evade us for this long!” Steve knows that the only way Clint is acting this way, is because Tony is the reason Laura left him. If it weren’t for the fight Tony had caused, Clint would still be allowed to see his children. It was yet another crime Tony had committed in Steve’s opinion.

Even though Steve loved the man, there was a point where he was going too far, and Tony had bulldozed right over that line.

“We have to find him, and soon.” Wanda puts in, “What if he’s making another Ultron?” The young girl sounds ready to burst into tears. Natasha moves to comfort her before he can.

Can’t Tony see what he’s doing to them, to his family? He’s causing them so much grief, and he’s hiding like a coward while bullying them.

“We will Wanda. And we will put a stop to whatever he manages to fuck up this time.” Clint is fingering his arrows in a way that Steve just knows he’s itching to put a few in Tony. Steve might even let him, if only to teach the brunet a lesson or two about bullying.

Steve notices Sam looks uncomfortable. The other man has been looking that way more and more often nowadays. “We’ve got to find him soon. The media is going nuts over this.” Sam says. “The longer it takes to find him, the bigger the chance the media will turn against us.”

Steve nods. That is the last thing any of them want. Turning the tide after Civil War had been easy enough, but keeping it that way was not easy. “Let’s get to work then.”

```````````````````````````````````

A month after Tony’s escape is the first time they see him again.

They’re fighting the third villain this week and they’re all tired. Steve cringes as yet another robot crashes into a building.

The media had been eating them alive enough for the past month. No matter what the Avengers did, it was just never good enough. Without Ironman there was no one but Falcon who could take to the skies, and they felt it. Since Tony had left them behind the property damages caused by the many fights had been becoming an issue. The casualties during battles were piling up and there was nothing they could do about it. Couldn’t the public see that they were trying?

Things were looking bad. Sam’s wings were damaged, Clint was running out of arrows and Natasha was injured.

It was then that he spotted the child on the streets. He felt his eyes widen. Where was the child’s mother? Had she not been keeping the child safe? What kind of mother would loose their child on a battleground?

“Guys! Child at my four o’clock!” He called into the comm, hoping that someone had their hands free, unlike him. No one was free though.

Steve felt his eyes widen as a robot lifted it’s arm to shoot, aiming right at the little girl. “Guys! The kid!”

Steve felt his heart stop as the robot began firing.

Only for a suit of armor to drop right in front of the girl and materialize a shield.

```````````````````````````````

Tony was glad he chose this fight to make his grand entrance. If he had not, the little girl behind him would be toast right now. Bullets bounced off of the bleeding edge armor like they were nothing. He lifted his repulse and blasted the robot in front of him in half. A remote controlled suit was then called to evacuate the girl to a safe area.

He then set to destroying as many robots as he could while scanning for the control point. It took all but thirty seconds to find and destroy it. The robots fell like puppets with their string cut.

He scanned several of the intact robots before coming to the conclusion that they weren’t worth it to take back to his lab for reverse-engineering. Police and military flooded the area quickly after they got the supposed okay from Rogers. A few brave film crews followed.

It was when he stood up from scanning a robot that he heard a voice he did not want to hear. “Tony! Is that you?”

Without hesitation he retracted his helmet.

“Tony,-”

“Save it.” Tony hisses with as much venom as he can manage. When their eyes meet he sees Rogers visibly flinch. Good.

“Oh my god, Tony what did you do to yourself?”

Tony smirks, Rogers is really making it to easy for him. He waits a few seconds so the camera crews have a good view of the both of them. “Oh, this?” He asks innocently, waving at his eyes, “Or do you mean the arm?”

Tony knows that Rogers means his new eye. The eye had an arc reactor blue hue to it, giving Tony an otherworldly look. The black-blue veins that lay close to the surface of his skin probably didn’t help either. It served Tony well however. He just wanted to show the world what their beloved captain had done to him.

He retracts his armor so the stump is in view for the camera’s. “It’s still off,” He offers cheekily.

“Tony, whatever you’ve done to yourself, we can fix it.” Steve tries. Tony wants to scoff at the raised hands and soft tone Rogers puts on. It’s not even a good performance.

“I’ve already fixed it, Rogers.” He throws back.

Rogers is clearly fishing for words, “Tony, we can help you. We’re your family. If you would just come home-”

Tony cuts him off livid, “Like you ‘helped’ me in Siberia? How you beat me so bad I couldn’t move and then left me to freeze to death in the Siberian winter? How when I woke up from a 37 day coma I lost an eye and an arm? You mean ‘help’ like that?”

“It wasn’t like that Tony! You know that! I had to protect Bucky.”

Tony nods, “Yeah, so you’ve said when you came to visit me when I was wrongfully imprisoned without so much as a trial. Only to offer me a position as you slave!”

Steve can believe what he’s hearing. God Tony could be such a drama queen sometimes. “You’re twisting my words Tony.”

It’s so easy to get Rogers to bite Tony almost felt bad for him. _Almost._ “How?” Tony spits, “How am I twisting your words? You wanted to lock me up in the compound so I could work for you, for the rest of the ‘Avengers’. But I would never be a free man again.”

That’s not what Steve meant. “You know that’s not how it was Tony. Yes, you would work for us, yes, you wouldn’t be allowed to leave the compound. But it was the best I could do! I even offered to listen to you as we would pick out a new Iron man pilot!”

That was fair, and better as the brunet actually deserved in Steve’s opinion. Civilians were that just that, civilians. They should not be in battle. “You’ve always been a civilian, Tony. Just a consultant. You were never supposed to be in battle! We don’t blame you for what you did in Siberia, for Ultron, for everything else. You should not have even been a part of the team. You should let us take the wheel from now on. Alright?”

Inside, Tony was boiling with anger. This… this violently arrogant man was trying to decide what he should do with the rest of his life. Like his accomplishments were nothing. How long had he carried the entire team? How many times had he saved their asses, from even halfway across the world when another one of their crackhead plans went south?

But then he let his aunt’s words wash over him, and suddenly Captain Jackasses opinion hardly mattered. _I know my own value, anyone’s else’s opinion hardly matters._ He could still hear aunt Peggy’s voice saying that, so many times in his life. Tony deadpans “You’re delusional.” Before flying off to a part of the block where he knows are still some civilians buried, and possibly still alive.

Before Rogers catches up with him again, he’s long gone.

`````````````````````````````````````````````

Tony sits in his lab watching the world loose it’s goddamn mind. The public is setting the Avengers on fire.

And he only watches with glee.

God, if he’d know that it would feel this good to watch them burn, he would have done it so long ago. He knows that Rogers is waiting for him to put the fire out, but the only thing Tony is going to do is add kerosene to the explosive mixture that is the Avengers and warm his hand on the fire.

“Friday?”

“Yes boss?” Comes the cheery voice of his baby girl.

“Start Phase 2.” Tony leans against his kids who have joined him at the television.

“With pleasure boss.”

````````````````````````````````````````````

Steve was pacing anxiously. He’d had no idea that the conversation with Tony would cause such a stir-up in the world. The people were shouting for justice after it came out that Tony had not had a trial. But he did have a trial. One at S.H.I.E.L.D. where it was decided that Tony was much too dangerous to be let into the public again. Where he got a life sentence without parole.

Steve had not really thought about the legality of the S.H.I.E.L.D. trial. Why would he have? He wholeheartedly agreed with S.H.I.E.L.D. on the part of Tony being too unstable to have the type of power being Ironman gave the man. And lord knows that there is no coming through to Tony once the brunet had set his mind on something. It had made for countless dangerous situations during missions, just because the man didn’t want to follow his commands.

While before Tony had often been a good thing for the Avengers, he had become a problem now. He’d been a problem from the beginning, but after Ultron it became more and more apparent that he man wasn’t suited to be a part of his team. He’d been meaning to take the position of consultant from Tony for a while. He just wasn’t made for it like the Avengers were.

Everything was a mess thanks to Tony, and right now Steve was itching to literally knock some sense into the man. Just when he thought it could not possibly get any worse, Sam called from the other room.

“Steve! You’ve got to come and watch this!”

Steve strolled into the room where his team was gathered around a TV. “What is it?” The news had been running re-runs of his conversation with Tony all day, and they were taking basically everything he said out of context and twisting his words to make him seem like some sort of monster.

Instead of replying Sam just pointed at the TV.

“- _shocking footage was sent to multiple news outlets. The footage shows what appears to be security footage of the Avengers Compound. Viewers are warned, some of the following footage contains scenes of violent nature.”_

What follows is shocking to say the least. It’s footage of the Avengers, basically being nothing but awful to Tony.

Steve yelling at Tony because an upgrade was not finished as fast as he wanted it. Clint laughing as he sent Tony into a full-on panic attack by splashing him with a bucket of water. Natasha ‘playfully’ throwing a knife at Tony when he enters the community kitchen. Wanda screaming abuse at the man when all he was doing was eating an apple. Thor, lifting Tony from the ground by the neck and many more.

This was bad.

````````````````````````````````````````

Tony was mastering his evil laugh, since he was basically a Villain now. Or at least, the Avengers had labeled him that. And he was loving being the ‘bad’ guy.

The press conference the Avengers had held to try and smooth things over had blown up in their faces spectacularly. The world was calling for the Avenger’s blood and justice for Tony.

The whole ordeal was amazing. He got the footage from when Rogers had first seen the accusations and his actions after he’d gotten back from the press conference. And he’d promptly send them to all media outlets.

Rogers had dug himself such a deep hole that Tony was surprised he hadn’t found the center of the earth yet.

And it just kept getting better and better.

Tony watched as Rogers made yet another statement on the comments from when he’d been back in the compound after the first press conference. You know, where Maximoff had pledged for the millionth time to brutally murder him.

Tony looked at Rogers who was trying to sell the whole, “She’s a misguided young girl who is trying to change for the better.” And could only smile.

“Friday?”

“Yes boss?”

“Sent them the HYDRA training tapes. Or, you know what, the entire Maximoff folder.”

“With pleasure boss.”

````````````````````````````````

It was early in the morning when it happened.

Steve and the team were sitting in the kitchen area when police flooded the building. One minute he was quietly drinking his cup of coffee and the next guns were pointed at them, many of the men were shouting at them to get on their knees.

Steve had no idea of what was going on. “Why are you here? We’re the Avengers! You can’t do this!” No one listened to him and when he refused to get on his knees more guns were pointed at him. Wanda was freaking out and Steve did his best to calm her as they both watched their teammates get on their knees only to be kicked down and roughly handcuffed.

“Last warning Rogers! Get on your knees, hands in the air!”

He was about to refuse when Sam cut in, “Just do it man! Whatever the charges are, we’ll figure it out.”

Begrudgingly Steve let himself be handcuffed and taken away in the back of a SWAT van like a common criminal.

He lost track of the others when they were loaded into their own vans. He sat quietly on the bench when his attempts to figure out what was happening fell on deaf ears. Inside, he was barely keeping his seething anger in. He was however determined to be the bigger man. It seemed he was the only one trying to do that recently.

```````````````````````````````

Special agent Romaz was staring disgustingly at the woman on the other side of the glass. When the team had handcuffed her they’d used the same technology that was used before at the raft. He could only hope for his men and himself that the bracelets were enough to fully suppress the woman’s monstrous abilities. From the way she was hysterically crying he thought it was holding.

He’d seen a lot of evil in his long career at homeland security, but never anything like this. When the videos were released of this very woman shredding through minds, he and a lot of others had hoped they were doctored. When the truth came to light and it was cleared that they were actually real, he’d felt faint in a way he hadn’t since his first crime scene.

He took one calming breath before he made his way to the door. It seemed that Maximoff had wasted the time alone with her lawyer to cry some more.

When he entered the room Maximoff’s lawyer immediately demanded that he remove the cuff from her.

“That will not happen.” Was all he said as he threw a file on the table. The lawyer looked at what was in the file and his face went white. “As you can see, removing the cuffs will never happen. That is until we can find a manner to remove her abilities.”

“You can’t do that!” The witch screeched. “I earned my abilities! You have no right to take them from me!”

Romez snorted. “The senate says otherwise. The way it’s looking right now, the loss of your powers will be the last of your problems.”

“Will they press for the death penalty?” The lawyer asked.

Romez scoffed again, “The only reason they wouldn’t, would be because she’d be delivered to Sokovia. There will be no fighting the death penalty there.”

“What can we offer to get the death penalty off the table?”

Maximoff gasps for air. It’s nice to see the witch get put in her place. “Death penalty? You can’t do that!”

“Actually,” Romez grins, “We can. And we will.”

“Again, is there something we can offer to get the death penalty off the table?”

Romez knew that the lawyer was desperate. There was nothing to fight for here. There were countless recordings, pictures, -you name it- of Maximoff’s guilt. The only thing that was still a question was how many she’d killed in total.

There was only one thing Maximoff could do to save her life. And it would give them the needed proof to put away all the other ‘heroes’.

“You can start by taking about what happened in Lagos. Give us enough to put the other’s away, and you might get life in prison.” While it pained to admit, to get the other Avengers would be worth getting Maximoff off the hook easily. She’d still be locked into solitary for life, but it was better as the monster in front of him deserved.

```````````````````````````````

Steve was sitting in an interrogation room still not knowing what was going on. “But you can’t hold me if I didn’t do anything!”

“For the last time Rogers, we can keep you up ‘till 24 hours. And I wouldn’t be so sure ‘you didn’t do anything’.”

Steve was getting suspicious now. “What do you mean?”

Instead of replying like the man should, he just smirked at Steve. Steve was gritting his teeth. He was just letting this man bully him, but Sam was right. This is probably just a misunderstanding. Steve would make sure though that the person who caused the misunderstanding knew _exactly_ what Steve thought of their bullying.

It was over four hours later when another agent came to retrieve the agent in front of him. The smirk the agents gave hi didn’t bode well for Steve, but when they both came back, Steve sat up to let them know who was the bigger man.

“Steve Rogers? You’re under arrest for theft, grand theft, breaking and entering, obstruction of justice, assault, attempted murder, wrongful imprisonment, illegally entering multiple countries, espionage and murder.”

Steve’s jaw dropped. The audacity of these men! He was Captain America and they accused him of these things?

“You have the right to an attorney…”

After being read his rights the smirking agent said, “So now we _can_ keep you for longer than 24 hours.”

Sam was in a state of shock. After being read his rights, he knew he was in deep shit. He wisely kept quiet and waited for his attorney to arrive.

Natasha also kept quiet after her attempts to flirt with the agents and trick them into letting her go failed.

Clint was immediately shouting and denying everything. Which the agents turned around on him and got him to admit to going on several of the illegal missions, further giving them proof that Maximoff had been telling the truth.

The only one they could not get for anything was the Vision, seeing as he’d only gone on missions when Stark had been involved. The android also had known nothing about where Stark had gone and had left the Avengers mostly. The android had still lived in the compound but had not gone on any missions with them, keeping him free from any crimes.

```````````````````````````````````

It had been three days since the information had been sent to the intelligence services and no one had seen hide nor hair from the Avengers.

Since that time there had been a slight issue in New York, but with the remote controlled armors the fight was over quickly and easily. The news was going nuts about Iron Man making yet another appearance and with the Avengers _not_ making an appearance.

It was on the third day that what Tony had been waiting for came to light.

_AVENGERS ARRESTED FOR VARIOUS CRIMES_

Followed by a long slew of crimes listed for each of the Avengers -minus Vision- and a mug shot of Captain Jackass in a prison overall. That made Tony crack a big smile. The public was still in denial about it all -save Maximoff whom he’d already crucified- and Tony was about to shatter that belief.

“Sent the rest.”

“Yes boss.”

``````````````````````````````````````

Just when Romez didn’t think it could get any worse, it did.

The files in front of him were going to fuel his nightmares for years to come.

How they’d been so blind to the flaws of these ‘heroes’ was beyond him. He couldn’t say anything however, he’d been just as ignorant as the rest of humanity.

````````````````````````````````````

Steve was sitting in his small cell watching the news.

Wanda had betrayed them all, giving away vital and sensitive information to save her own hide and had dragged them all down. Though it didn’t seem to matter to the public. The people were calling for justice for Tony, just as a few months ago they had called for justice for Bucky and himself.

It made him angry to see how the public was dragging him through the mud for no reason besides doing the right thing.

There were pictures of Hydra agents that had died during the helicarriers incident shown as if they were the victims. Sure, when photos of their families laying dead were shown he felt some sympathy for them. But on the other side, they had willingly started a family with a Nazi, which was enough reason to want them dead in Steve’s opinion. A Nazi was only good imprisoned or dead. The dead children of those Hydra agents were better off dead.

And yet they were shaming him for it.

Couldn’t they just take his word for it and accept that it was necessary? He saved the world!

And while Steve was sitting in a prison cell Tony was roaming free. Lord only knew what the brunet could cook up while on his own for so long. He needed to be found.

The public was agreeing with him on that part at least.

Only for the wrong reasons.

Lord have mercy, they were calling Tony a victim! One of his supposed ‘victims’.

The mere thought of Tony getting away with all the horrific things he’d caused made him sick to his stomach. When they showed Tony’s injuries that had been caused during the fight in Siberia Steve could only scoff in the face of the agent. Yes, he’d hurt the man, but he hit first! Steve was only trying to protect Bucky. Bucky didn’t deserve to die for something that long ago! It wasn’t his fault!

```````````````````````````````````

Five days after sending all the tapes the world was still in uproar. The people were calling out to the politicians to _do something._ It was only took so long for the news to broadcast an invitation to talk about the charges against Tony.

He accepted.

So that afternoon he had a video call with several agents and spoke of the crimes that were committed against him. It was a long talk and Tony was later cleared of all charges by a judge over a video call.

Tony still did not return to the public for a while. It was only when the former Avenger’s trials started that he showed up in court to testify.

Steve could hardly believe it. There he was. After hiding like a coward for so long he just walked into the courthouse like he owned the place. His lawyer had told him Tony would be there, but now that he was actually there it was like a dream.

Tony would fix the situation for him, as he’d always done for him in the past. His lawyer had looked at him as if he were insane when he told the man that everything would be handled if Tony would be there. Yet Steve was positive that Tony would clean this awful witch hunt up as he should have in the beginning.

Steve might even forgive Tony for letting him sit in jail for the time he had. They would need to have a talk about deadlines though if it took Tony this long to get him out of prison.

It was only when Tony began to testify that it became clear to Steve that the little hope he’d had for Tony was squished. The infuriating man told nothing but lies, saying how Steve had been using and abusing him and had broken a lot of laws. It was insane to hear the brunet lie like that.

And when Siberia came up, Tony lied about that as well. He lied and told them all about how he’d only wanted to deck them both for keeping his parents’ murder from him, while Steve knew the truth about the situation. He knew that Tony had tried to kill him. And even after that Steve had been willing to forgive him for it.

The time for forgiveness had flown however. “You’re lying.”

His lawyer hisses to him to be quiet, but he wasn’t having any of that. He’d been quiet for too long.

“You backstabbing liar!” He yelled.

“Mr. Rogers!” The judge scolded him as if he had any right to tell Steve off. But Steve had had enough. He ripped the handcuffs off and made his way to the witness stand.

If anything, Steve thought it was a show of respect that he hadn’t done it before. That he’d let them cuff him like a rabid animal. Before he made it to Tony a _**bang**_ was heard.

The pain blossomed across his shoulder and red began to seep into his suit. He distantly recognized that he’d been shot, but paid it little mind. All he saw was red and he had to get to Tony.

```````````````````````````````

When Tony came into the courtroom and took his place on the witness stand he knew from the first second of being there that Rogers was itching to beat him into submission.

It was no surprise that he eventually ripped the cuffs off and made his way to Tony. The first shot his Rogers in the shoulder, but it didn’t seem to stop him. Tony was the one who fired the second one. He hit Rogers in the chest with a repulser blast strong enough to blast him across the courtroom and knock any fight the man had out of him. Several guards worked together to sedate the downed madman.

Tony was breathing heavily and he could feel the panic attack creeping up on him. He could fight it off, it wasn’t that pressing, but instead he let himself be fully taken by the panic he felt. The camera’s had a great view of him as he dissolved into the attack. The public was very sympathetic towards him and if it were possible became even more hostile towards Rogers when the courtroom tape was outed.

Tony didn’t have to testify anymore.

``````````````````````````````

Days later Tony cracked open a bottle of champagne as he watched the outcome of the trial safely from his hideout.

Rogers and Maximoff got life. The others didn’t get life, but enough that they would be a minimum of 70 or so years old when they would be released.

Tony got the glory of being the only remaining superhero.

Life was good.

**Author's Note:**

> For those of you asking where Pepper and our favorite Spiderling are,
> 
> I imagined Pepper just egging Tony on to completely destroy the Rogues. Rhodey was her friend as well, and they crossed the line, but she needed to take care of Tony's legacy to the world. The public was not on their side and so she had to keep quiet to keep the company safe, so she stayed out of most of it. Friday kept her up to date on Tony's health. She basically just let Tony go wild and watched the fireworks.
> 
> As for our Spiderling, even in canon he kept out of the big fights (or tried to and failed). I imagine that there was a lot of hate for anyone on Tony's side until Tony showed the Rogues' true colors. So Spidey laid low and watched the spectacle just as Pepper did.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Iron Cages](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25565602) by [theloneliestgemini](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theloneliestgemini/pseuds/theloneliestgemini)
  * [The One True SHIELD](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25660582) by [Orca478](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orca478/pseuds/Orca478)




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